Certain embodiments of the present invention relate to a medical diagnostic ultrasound scanner. More particularly, certain embodiments relate to a method and apparatus for diagnosing an ultrasound scanner from a remote location using platform/server independent programs.
Ultrasound scanners to detect faults, problems, and general status within the scanner are well established. Ultrasound scanners typically comprise different hardware and software implementations that perform various operations such as scan data collection and scan data conversion. There are different software diagnostic tests that perform routine troubleshooting of the hardware assemblies. Other tests provide data on software functioning and general scanner status by logging the data in files.
The diagnostic software tests are resident on the scanner and may be operated by a person having direct access to the console of the scanner. However, the tests are not always accessible remotely, that is, from a remote computer through a connection to, for example, a network through a modem.
Other scanners provide remote access through, for example, a VT-100 based remote interface or a common gateway interface (CGI) used for performing various remote services. The interfaces are dependent on specific software and hardware configurations and are not always optimized in terms of performance as the software platform is changed or upgraded. To improve the performance, a new interface that is consistent with the latest software platform would have to be designed.
For example, a method described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,715,823 to Wood et al. describes using common gateway interface (CGI) programs to access ultrasound images and diagnostic data. A method described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,891,035 to Wood et al. describes accessing images and information from internal and external databases by means of a browser within an ultrasound system and connecting the browser to a network. A method described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,851,186 to Wood et al. describes electronically acquiring a diagnostic ultrasound image over a communications network such that an ultrasound system has a server. A method described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,224,551 B1 to Mullen describes storing ultrasound image data in a database storage device and using an internet protocol. A method described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,272,469 B1 to Koritzinksy et al. describes downloading operational protocols to diagnostic machines from a remote location over a network.
The well-established Internet enables computers at one location to communicate with computers at other locations. The technique of packet switching is typically used to transfer data from one computer to another over the Internet. Information from one user of a network is sent to another user of the network by breaking the information up into discrete units of digital information called packets. Packets of information are transferred across the network by high-speed routers that seek out a network route from one point to another in the network. At a destination point in the network, packets are received and reassembled to re-institute the originally sent message of information.
Transferring information via packets allows a network to accommodate many messages at a time by interleaving packets originating from different locations. Many computers may operate on a network at the same time and may transfer information quickly across the network in the form of packets. The higher cost of a dedicated communication path is avoided. However, as the number of users of the network increase, the larger number of messages being sent may result in a longer amount of time being required to transfer all of the packets in any given message over the network to its destination. But enhancements in computer technology and performance over time allow higher volumes of information to be transferred across a network at faster rates.
The Internet comprises multiple networks that allows for the transfer of information among many users who are linked into the network. To facilitate the transfer of information across the Internet, the World Wide Web (WWW) was created to be used as a high-level user interface to the Internet. A distributed menu system is provided by the WWw where menu pages are displayed such that a user may request information from another system on the Internet. The WWW provides the ability for a user to hop from one web site of information to another by way of displayed hypertext links. A hypertext link allows a user to click on a hypertext component, transferring to a web page associated with that hypertext component, regardless of where the web page is actually located or hosted. A user may download information from the web page and/or go on to another or previous web page in a similar manner. By employing hypertext linking, a user may rapidly link to the desired information on the WWW for which he is searching. Information received from a given web site may be formatted as text, images, graphics, video, and audio.
By incorporating a standard server into an ultrasound machine, the power of the Internet may be employed to access diagnostic data generated by the ultrasound scanner. However, the interface between the server and diagnostics section within the scanner has previously been customized for the scanner and server.
A need exists to be able to activate performance of diagnostic functions on scanners from a remotely located computer and display certain results of the diagnostic functions on the remotely located computer such that the diagnostics interface is platform/server independent and may be used on multi-generational products.
An embodiment of the present invention provides for diagnosing multiple ultrasound scanners, being of differing platform types, from a remote location by applying a diagnostic middleware architecture acting as an interface between a diagnostics section of the scanners and a web server within the scanners. The diagnostic middleware architecture is platform/server independent and may be used on multi-generational products. As used herein, platform/server-independent means independent of the operating system and hardware on which the programs of the diagnostic middleware architecture are being run. The ultrasound scanners are surveyed from a remote location over a network by communicating with the servers over the network. The diagnostic middleware architecture initiates execution of diagnostic programs within the scanners in response to client requests received by the servers from the remote location. The diagnostic programs generate diagnostic results. Log files are generated within the scanners during normal operation of the scanners. The diagnostic middleware architecture translates the diagnostic results and log files to the web servers and the web servers transfer the information to the remote location over the network. The information is displayed to an operator at the remote location.
Apparatus is provided for diagnosing multiple ultrasound scanners, being of differing platform types, from a remote location by employing a diagnostic middleware architecture acting as an interface between a diagnostic programs module within the scanners and a web server within the scanners. The diagnostic middleware architecture is platform/server independent and may be used on multi-generational products. A computer that is remote to the scanners interfaces to the web servers of the scanners over a network. The remote computer has a web browser to survey the scanners by communicating with the web servers within the scanners over the network. The diagnostic middleware architecture initiates execution of diagnostic programs within the diagnostic programs modules of the scanners in response to client requests received by the web servers from the remote computer over the network. The diagnostic programs generate diagnostic results. Log files are generated within the scanners during normal operation of the scanners. The diagnostic middleware architecture translates the diagnostic results and log files to the web servers and the web servers transfer the information to the remote computer over the network. The information is displayed to an operator by the remote computer.
A method is also provided for diagnosing multiple ultrasound scanners, being of differing platform types, from a remote location by applying a diagnostic middleware architecture acting as an interface between diagnostic programs within the scanners and a web server within the scanners. The diagnostic middleware architecture is platform/server independent and may be used on multi-generational products. The web servers of the scanners interface to a remote location. The scanners are surveyed from the remote location by communicating with the web servers within the scanners. The diagnostic middleware architecture initiates execution of diagnostic programs within the scanners in response to client requests received by the web servers from the remote location. The diagnostic programs generate diagnostic results. Log files are generated within the scanners during normal operation of the scanners. The diagnostic middleware architecture translates the diagnostic results and log files to the web servers and the web servers transfer information to the remote location. The information is displayed to an operator at the remote location.
Certain embodiments of the present invention afford an approach to activate diagnostic functions on ultrasound scanners of differing platform types from a remotely located computer, and display certain results of the functions on the remotely located computer such that the diagnostics interface is platform/server independent and may be used on multi-generational products.